E-books - they've never really taken off here in the UK, but Sony is hoping to convert a whole nation with the launch of the Sony Reader. It's partnered with Waterstones to sell the content, with each reader able to hold up to 160 books, although this is expandable with SD or Sony's Memory Stick Duo. The device will also display images and play music files. Battery-wise, you're looking at 6,800 'page turns' (enough to read War and Peace five times).
Pre-orders for the device are being taken from today, but the units themselves won't be available until September. Sony promises that at the actual launch, over 10,000 titles will be available, but will it convert the bookworms amongst us?
There's certainly something to be said for being able to carry a number of books, and the battery life indicates it would be perfect for those that do a lot of travelling. However, you can't deny it sucks the romance of hunkering down with a good book right out.
They're available for pre-order now at Waterstones, and will set you back £199.
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Romance, schomance... I hated the idea of an e-book reader right until I picked one of these up in the Sony store in Caesar's Palace in January. Instant love.
But it won't have that new book smell!
That's true, but I took 5 books with new (and old) book smell on holiday for 2 weeks... and came back with 9... and sore shoulders...
Even worse it won't have that old book smell!
Really? £200 plus book data cost? That's 28 £6.99 paperbacks with change just for the hardware. A lot more if you buy a lot second hand like me. A solution to a non-existant problem IMHO.
I actually own an Amazon Kindle and I love it. Right now there are 15 new books in my purse! I can pay for a new book with a credit card on file with Amazon {US} and have it downloaded to my Kindle in less than a minute.
You know, I've never really gotten into this e-reader thing. The temptation for me lies in the weight factor, like Alex I seem to be a magnet for big, heavy books! I'm not too keen on the price though.. perhaps I'll wait until they come down in price again and then might switch paper for.. screen!
I have an (older) e-book reader and, while I don't use it on a day-to-day basis, it's perfect for travel! (The reason I got it for, actually.) I read A LOT on holiday, and the idea of paying extra fees at the airport/damaging my shoulders doesn't appeal too much. The $125 dollars I paid were more than justified.
(That being said, current e-book readers are much more expensive than I'd like, so I'll stick to my old one until the price drops a lot.)